BLACK AND WHITE

My black and white film scans arrived yesterday, and it was as if someone actually lit my face up when the package was handed to me. Yes, a moment of unadulterated joy! It brought me back to the time when I got my first roll developed. There is always a level of excitement, surprise and anxiety whenever I get my film scans back, but this time it was amplified by half as much because I have never shot a black and white film. Everything seemed new again.

Sending the rolls to the lab was a tragedy in itself (haha) because my go-to lab does not accept traditional black and white processing. To cut the story short, I got myself lost in the middle of a city that I know nothing about just because I missed that one jeepney stop. A supposedly 15-minute errand ended up being an hour and a half. And like sprinkling salt on an open wound, the price of having them processed and scanned was so unexpected, I had to question myself on why am still enjoying this affair with film. 240 pesos for a roll. That's five dollars each. And because I didn't want to go through the whole ordeal of getting lost again, I had them delivered to me instead of the usual pick-up. So that's another 90 pesos.

But all of these complaints went up in the smoke when I saw and browsed them frame by frame. I wanted to hug the monitor, or the film scans themselves! Of course my shots were not perfect (expected because I had no light meter), but I think black and white film is very forgiving when it comes to exposure. I love it. I love them all.

One day this week, I will find a time to sit down and carefully tell tales of my Cambodia and short Thailand trips before the vividness starts to escape my funny memory.